I purchased the car from an American who had purchased the car from David 3 years ago (with 36,000 miles). He had returned to America and left his brother in law to sell the car.

It was sold with Full documented BMW service history and all previous paperwork (MOT's, etc...), receipts for various additions and unusually all keys including valet key and the small plastic wallet key.

It was also supplied with a "spare" boot with OEM Luggage rack fitted, part worn rear tyre with repairable nail damage and original exhausts.

There is some history of the car on here but I managed to speak to David about the car and he informed me of the following:

- the car had failing of the fan and radiator whilst on a Zroadster road trip (highlander II) and was recovered by BMW under warranty for repair. This was repaired by BMW (recorded on the warranty documentation). What is not recorded on the warranty records is that at the same time BMW replaced the Shell Bearings (a recall item on S54 M3's but not S54 Z3m Roadster or Coupes) but they would not record the work as they did not want to publicise this fact.

- the car never suffered from the well documented Differential bracket / spot weld failure (all boot spot welds are still original and as new)

As can be seen above the car is highly specified on purchase but was presented for sale in what can only be described as an "unclean" state. On close inspection it was obvious that the car was in fantastic condition inside and out but first impressions were less than would be expected of such a high performance car. It probably goes some way to explain as to why the car remained unsold on AutoTrader for some time (plus the fact it was not advertised as a rare S54 example) and why I purchased at what I consider a fantastic price.

I intend to keep this car for a considerable amount of time (didn't I say that about my last S50 ///M version, but this was too good a purchase to miss) and will maintain this journal of my exploits.

First job is to give the car a basic clean, clay and wax. A full detial will not be carried out initially partly due to time constraints (ie Z Roadster /BMW event in two days so I only have half a day free before then) and the present weather /lack of space to do indoors. This will give me the opportunity to record any remediation work required to the bodywork / paint.

I have started with the wheels / wheel arches:

The way they were presented for sale, some light curbing (Breyton lips really do extend past the tyre wall). Generally dirty but no defects to laquer and very little brake dust "crusting".

The inside wheel arches were quickly cleaned, mainly to see if any evidence of repair / damage. Arches look in great condition with no sign of previous damage / repair work.

The wheels were cleaned and quickly polished. As suspected really only superficial dirt and very easy to clean.

The finished wheels (nb pictures are of rear wheel but all wheels in identical condition bar light curbing to rears)

I can live with the slight rear curbing for the time being but will get refurbed at some point. One of the Breyton centre badges has some wear so will source a replacement.

I had been trying to source these wheels second hand for 6 months for my previous ///M (they are discontinued and I have been told by Breyton that all excess stock was melted down). I am very very pleased with the condition of them and would have happily paid £1,500 for them second hand (they were c£2,500 new).

Wheel Specifications are:

Breyton Magic Racing (2 piece)
Front 18x8.5 ET38
Rear 18x9.5 ET19

Standard Z3m wheels are
Front 17x7.5 ET41
Rear 17x9.0 ET8

This means that the Breytons vary from the original wheels as follows:
Front - 10mm less inner clearance, outer extended 16mm
Rear - 17mm less inner clearance, retracted by 5mm

The fronts really do fill the wheel arch and first impression is that they must catch the liner (especially given the lowered AC Schnitzer suspension) but they obviously do not.

The rears may need extending 5 to 10 mm with hib centric spacers.

I will take more pictures of the wheels fitted following first body wash tomorrow (ran out of light).

Last edited by Jonttt on Sat 05 Sep, 2009 11:07, edited 1 time in total.

Yalden, yep is good stuff, never thought of using blue engineering paper though, will have to get some.

Here's a pick of the old ///M badge off my S50 against the S54.

I replaced this badge on my S50 as it had suffered from the common "pink" shade of red. I replaced it with S54 badges which I think do look better. They are supposed to keep there colour better but to be sure I coated them in clear laquer. May do the same with my new car.

Firstly let me congratulate you on an absolute stunning purchase I am sure this one is going to be even more cherished than the last which incidentally well done for selling so quick obviously a credit to its condition. I would so like to do a similar thing to you and buy myself a Z3m.

With the rim lips sticking out, it looks like they could really do with a wider tyre, that's the only reason they stick out due to the tyre stretch, but at the same time this can sometimes look alright.

Bandit, I'm tempted but girlfriend has always ben adament we could not go on a road trip in the Z because of lasck of space for all her clothes Now she has no excuse so I'm going to keep it for now and see if I use it.

C-w, I checked with Breyton and its got the recommended tyre size on. I do think itcould handle wider though. I'll look into it more when its due for new rears.,

Re the spacer a mate of mine has given me two sets of AC Schnitzer hub centrics with bolts unused, 7mm and 10mm with BMW part numbers. RealOEM does not recognise the part numbers though I tried them and they won't fit so I will have to get the correct ones, I should be able to get them flush with the arches with either 10mm or 15mm, will check before I order. (I will post up details about the AC Schnitzer ones on a seperate thread to try and find out what car they are for )

After last nights exploits with the alloys it was time to give the car its first clean. The intention was to wash the car, clay and wax. This would allow me to identify any defects that will need remediation later.

The car was purchased in what I would class as an unclean condition but on inspection I was confident that this could be easily rectified,

First a few pictures of the car before I remove the hardtop (with clean alloys ). I really think the black top suits the Imola Red well.

An example of the "stained" paintwork, the clay bar should easily deal with this.

I decided to give the engine bay, boot surround and door frames a light wash in some cheap car wash

Before, pretty grubby but only superficial

After light wash and its gleaming, no need for degreaser

Time to take the hardtop off and examine the roof. I had inspected this on viewing to purchase and new it looked rough but was basically sound. We actually had trouble getting the hardtop off when I viewed as the rear fixers had siezed. A little WD40 and it released. This time worked easily.

On closer inspection of the roof it is in much better condition then I thought. It is very taught with no wear marks at all. The only issue being the canvas pulling from the rear window (which is a pretty common problem). It can be rectified with sealant or a new window if necessary.

I decided I had time to clean and reseal the roof as I was keen to see what it looked like when cleaned up.

Before:

No wear marks in usual place above passenger window

Unpleasent looking marks on the roof I was confident would be easily removed, I have seen a lot worse with green mold clean up fine

Old faithful Autoglym roof cleaner

I resealed with some BMW product which came with the car, after two coats and a little drying time the roof is in fantastic condition, actually looks like new.

It was obvious that the hardtop had been on for a considerable time and I decided to leave the window issue for a few days to let the roof stretch a little, it really is a lot taughter than my S50. The window had started to "flatten" out even after an hour so I'll let roof and window settle and sort out next week. The window is also in great condition and all it needed was a light wipe to remove all marks (the hardtop had been fitted with the window blanket on which really had saved the window from scratches).

After my little sidetrack with the roof time to get on with the main job of the day. I gave the car a good wash with Macguires shampoo and dried off. Time for the clay bar.

Striaght away there was plenty of contamination picked up from only a small area

Claying gave me the first chance to inspect the paintwork properly.

The are the expected stone chips on the front, pretty light to be honest and various ones scattered around the bodywork. The worst is actually on the boot lid. Quite a few of the chips had not been touched up but my local dealer had no Imola in stock so I will attend to these next week. The good news is that non showed any signs of rust.

The only thing I could find that was not an easy remedy was a small area of "burnt" paint on the boot above the centre brake light. This is a sign of over enthusiastic previous polishing and so I will have to get the paint thickness checked over the car before carrying out any more aggressive machine polishing to remove swirl marks (given the condition after claying I'm happy to leave this until next summer as the car will not be used much for the remainder of this summer).

A picture of the burnt paint, not easy to photograph:

Finally a quick polish

I am really chuffed the way the car looks after such a basic detail, with only one very small area requiring more than basic attention (the burn mark).

In my enthusiasm I decided to give the interior a light clean, again to give me a chance to examine in more detail. I used warm water with a little vinegar and a microcloth to wipe over. I finished off with some gummi fledge on the rubber seals and a quick polish of the chrome hoops.

The interior was a lot cleaner than the outside and is in fantastic condition. There is some slight wear to the driver bolster and I have already ordered the dye from Germany to rectify (nowhere near as bad as my S50 which dyed back to orginal colour fantastically). Apart for that the interior is in flawless condition.

Some finished pictures

I've never seen a "shortie" aerial before and it looks great

My favourite Z8 chrome nozzles (I had just fitted these to my S50)

The superb Gummi Fledge for rubber seals

AC Schnitzer Polished Stainless Steel Roll Hoops

Some interior shots. I've not had chance to fit my Becker Head unit yet, but the JVC unit already on the car is superb.

AC Schnitzer short shift gear stick and handbrake

The car has Leatherz rear top box cover and steering tabs fitted. I also came with additional Leatherz door trim which had not been fitted. I thought I would fit them and see what people think.

A final shot - my S50 in the background

In summary I knew the car had not been presented well for sale but underneath had great potential. It has exceeded my expectations and the roof in its as new condition is a real bonus

Tilly, kindly emailed me a scanned copy of the Total BMW magazine from December 2004 featuring my car and two other Imola Red ///M's (x2 S54's and x1 S50).

I have contacted Total BMW magazine to try and get a copy of that edition but they have said it is out of print and not available.

Given this I thought it would be OK to post up and would add value to this journal as you don't often get the chance to see some of the history of these cars (if this is a problem then mods please delete this post )

Si, he told me he had the car treated with SupaGuard by BMW in December 2005

I'lldo some research but so far as I'm aware its just a fancy wax which you get an insurance policy on, bit of a dealer rip off.

I've actually bought the full kit ex dealer (including dealer box of tricks and owner bag of goodies) for £60 off eBay,still had BMW dealer stickers on it.

My girlfriend is picking up her new BMW Mini 1st October so I'm going to treat both cars with that (the main paint treatment is a one off "sponge" which you pierce to release the treatment and can't be reused.

Looking fab Jon, and thank you for going to all the trouble with your posts, its a great read on a special Zed. Just don't forget if your planning on keeping it forever lol, get some Dinitrol and give the underside a good going over, afternoons job and a little messy but once done it will protect it for years.

Car had its first run out yesturday to the BMW meet at Tatton Park. Great turn out of Z's and it was a pleasure to say the car is now mine

Took the opportunity to have several small parking dents and one unusual raised dent (bonnet closed on something in the past?) taken out by a dent guy. Got a fantastic deal of £100 for around 8 dents to be removed (usually costs c£70 first dent and £30 for 2+ so by my reckoning would have cost me around £280 normally).

He did a great job but it did draw a bit of a crowd and I had lots of "encouraging" words from fellow zroadster members who enjoyed watching him get some rather impressive tools into my door

Jonttt wrote:
Took the opportunity to have several small parking dents and one unusual raised dent (bonnet closed on something in the past?) taken out by a dent guy. Got a fantastic deal of £100 for around 8 dents to be removed (usually costs c£70 first dent and £30 for 2+ so by my reckoning would have cost me around £280 normally).

He did a great job but it did draw a bit of a crowd and I had lots of "encouraging" words from fellow zroadster members who enjoyed watching him get some rather impressive tools into my door

My mate does that for a living, he's saved my life a few times...and i don't pay him

I had noticed that the clutch was very heavy and had to be nailed to the floor to change gear and trundling around in traffic last Thursday it was getting harder to change gear. At the BMW show at Tatton last Sunday I had got the chance to ask another Z3 S54 driver and my brother (Z4 S54) about their clutches and both said it did need nailing down to change. However, my brother did say that his is "notchier" when cold and get easier as the car warms. Mine was the opposite.

I had asked DavidM if he'd had a competition clutch fitted and he said no but the clutch had always bothered him and he would have got it changed.

Driving back from Tatton I had the chance to try out some "overtaking manouvers" and the car was awesome (albeit restrained with SWMBO in the car).

But something was niggling me so last night I decided to go out when the roads were quite and have my first real blast to see if I could live with it as is for now (Roof down in the dark ).

Massive smile on face for 20 minutes then I started to get some clutch slip and the distinctive burning smell of an overheated clutch

So I dropped the car at my indy this morning for him to look at but I think a new clutch is in order.

I'm actually quite relieved as I confident this was manifesting itself in the clutch not feeling right (although not actually slipping) in the limited day to day driving I had done in the car. Given this car is a keeper for me I would rather know the clutch is up to scratch and is not affecting the performance of the car.

Hopefully my indie will be able to get this sorted for the weekend and I can see what a difference it makes on my trip over to the Harewood "cars in the park" meet on Sunday.

Update: 10/09/09 Indy called me today after removing gearbox and examining clutch it does need replacing. Also he examined the dual mass flywheel and reported that it had c30mm of play and he would expect c10mm. He said he could leave it but if I'm keeping the car a long time he recommended I replace it whilst the clutch is replaced. Given that I am and I want the car spot on I told him to replce both. We then had a 5 minutes discussion about how nice the car was (and how rare). Not sure I will get it back in time for the Cars in the Park event on Sunday which is the most disappointing thing. He's going to try and fit it in Friday afternoon if the parts arrive in time (they don't work Saturdays).

Update 14/09/09 Picked the car up today from Indy, new clutch and Dual mass flywheel fitted. I'm glad to report problem fully cured. Clutch now has perfect "biting" point and gearbox has a nice precise feel to it. Managed to get in a 30 min blast on country lanes and glad to report performance is now spot on Hopefully the clutch and flywheel should give many a year of trouble free service now

Last edited by Jonttt on Mon 14 Sep, 2009 21:07, edited 2 times in total.

Daz, thanks for posting up some great pics of mines "sister" car. I can see I'm gonna have to start a poll to name mine

I love the schnitzer wheels, front bumper and fogs. I think yours has the bigger exhaust pipes?

I've managed to get hold of an original Schnitzer Z3 brochure and price list, I'll try and post up a copy, you've got most of the kit in there and the reg to boot (I bet Schnitzer would have paid a fortune for that)

"Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car, oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you"

Alfie, what a great story. I almost feel guilty not spending 18 months looking for mine.

Your is the older sister bby 3 months, they could almost be twins as the only difference at stock I can see was the non smokers option on mine and your red roof.

Great registration as well.

I can't believe you found her even closer to home than me (mine was 8 miles away).

I'm not a religious person but I do believe in fate. I did all I could to get someone else to buy this car before me, even posted up on here when it was on autotrader to let everyone know and deleted the autotrader shortcut on my computer so I would stop looking, despite this she did not sell after 1 month and I ended up buying her (after another week and no bids on eBay) from a desperate seller

Gazza spotted a link on the BMW Approved site but there was no photograph. Then Alfie posted some piccies of the steel grey he had been to look at ( which was Sharky). His owner Ivor decided to keep him a little longer and then traded him into Sycamore BMW for a Z4M roadster in October 2007.

Well that was it! Steel grey being my favourite colour and all. Deal done and I am still delighted. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

No....definitely a keeper! It's the ultimate Z3 model in a fab colour combo which is probably unique.
The only reason I'd sell RED is if I found exactly the same but in better condition.....
Besides, the value is so low now that it's not worth me selling. The car means more to me than the money I could get for it.

garythefish wrote:Just a point, Charlotte was owned by Giles in the Magazine article

David (left), Graham & Giles

Giles in the shot for sure, but owned by Bryn from August that year as Nemesis (CSL) had arrived - Linky

I stand corrected

Gazza

"Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car, oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you"

I received a full set of keys with the car (x2 remote locking, valet and small plastic wallet key)

One of the main remote keys was mint but one was very worn and had the usual degraded rubber buttons typical of this type of key.

With my previous Z3m I had the same issue and purchased a new key off eBay so I decided to do the same.

You can purchase new keys with the electronic parts for c£20 on eBay. These are great if you have lost a key but you have to programme them into the car.

you can also puchase empty cases (ie no electronics) for c£10 + £2 postage which are great if you just want to replace a key as you can just swap over the electrics and use the key with no more messing around.

The key was even better than the one I had purchased for my previous car and actually feels like its OEM (the previous one was good quality but you could tell the difference side by side with an OEM one, this one you can't).

Here are the 2 keys, the original with worn buttons on the right and the new one after the blank key has been cut on the left

Remove the rear cover plate to reveal 2 small screws to undo

The two bodies, the original on the right has the eletronics still in, the new one on the left is empty

The electrics just lift out in one. Note there is also a small immobilisor chip (loose underneath) that also has to be swapped over

Simply install them in the new body, put on the rear cover and job is done.

Johntt, I'll be clearing the loft out soon and I'm sure I have a copy of that issue of TotalBMW, FOC to you mate.

Charlotte is ace and part of it being called the 'most sorted' was that it had the trio of braces to go with the cosmetic's! It handled brilliantly round Croft when I drove it. Seem to recall it had the 83mm 'Race' Eisenmann's.